War! The crisis was no longer "artificial"--he admitted that! What impended, what had fallen? Jest and earnest were still coupled, but earnest took the lead from that hour. Said the Chief Magistrate, in his first official speech: "Physically speaking, we cannot separate--that's what's the matter." * * * * * "THE SHIP OF STATE" SIMILE. On the morning of Lincoln's arrival in Washington, General Logan and Mr. Lovejoy called on him at Willard's Hotel, to urge a firm and vigorous policy. He replied: "As the country has placed me at the helm of the ship, I'll try to steer her through." The Sangamon River pilot spoke there. "I understand the ship to be made for the carrying and the preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved with the cargo, it should never be abandoned, unless it fails in the probability of its preservation, and shall cease to exist, except at the risk of throwing overboard both freight and passengers."--(Speech, New York reception, 1861.) "I trust that I may have the assistance of the members of this legislature in piloting the ship of state through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is; for, if it should suffer shipwreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage."--(Speech, Trenton, New Jersey, 1861.) * * * * * A PILL FOR THE PUBLIC PRINTER. In Lincoln's first message to Congress, special session, July 4, 1861, is seen this passage: "With rebellion thus _sugar-coated_, they have been drugging the public mind," etc. Mr. Defrees, public printer, with the proofreader's sublime spurning of plain speech, objected to this sweet word, and said: "Mr. President, you are using an undignified expression! I would alter the construction if I were you!" "Defrees," was the crushing reply, "that word expresses precisely _my_ idea, and I am not going to change it. The time will never come in this country when the people won't know exactly what 'sugar-coated' means!" "'I JINKS! I CAN BEAT YOU BOTH!" One day the public printer wanted to correct a Lincolnism in one of the presidential documents. "Go home, Defrees, and see if you can better it." The next day, Defrees took him his amendment. It happened that Secretary Seward had spied the same fault as the printer, and Lincoln confronted the two improvements. "'I jinks! (by Jingo!) Seward has been rewriting the same paragraph. I believe you have beat Seward, but I think I can beat you both!" And he wrote with his firm hand "_Stet!_ so let it stand!" on the proof-sheet. * * * * * "LET THE GRASS GROW WHERE IT MAY!"